3 Cohesion A text analysis Analysis of cohesion

3. Cohesion: A text analysis

Analysis of cohesion in a feature article • A form of news story but not so timely • Must contain all the Ws • Hung on a “peg” (i. e. a reason for writing it) : something that is happening today, this week or this month • Factual but includes also comment, analysis and ‘colour’ • Conclusion: essential, wraps the whole piece up or refers back, in some way, to something mentioned right at the start

Elements of cohesion: Lexical cohesion The internet is killing newspapers and giving birth to a new sort of news business trimming pared down crisis killing death destroy suffering doing badly thinning Closure dwindling Shut down lump ü Synonyms ü Collocations laid off Disappear

Elements of cohesion: Lexical cohesion • The internet is killing newspapers and giving birth to a new sort of news business New … Start Unveiled Latest update future Flourish Enriches proliferating Enhance encourage

Cohesion: grammar dependency • The internet is killing newspapers and (is) giving birth to a new sort of news business - Grammar dependency at phrase level - Ellipsis

Cohesion: grammar dependency Tense and aspect past present future …founded in 1865 …used to enjoy … claimed to have seen some news …is killing …is giving birth …are suffering …things are worst …have shut down … …won’t even notice …will be different …will not be dominat-ed by few big titles …will be shaped by thousands of different voices

• Intro Cohesion/Coherence – Peg: San Francisco Chronicle – Crisis of newspapers (due to the impact of the Internet and the advertising slump) – Leading question: Can the newspaper crisis have detrimental effects on decmocratic societies? • The body – Reasons for the crisis of newspapers • Many people turn to the web for contents/services previously provided by newspapers (e. g. job and property listingsclassified advertisement) • Advertising revenue migrating to the web – Future perspectives: • going electronic + charging for content – New technological affordances (i-phones) – New payment system (micropayment for articles) • Ggeater plurality of sources • Conclusion

Other cohesive devices • The race is crowded, but San Francisco stands a fair chance of becoming the first major American city without a daily newspaper. • Most industries are suffering at present, but few are doing as badly as the news business. • Hyponymy

Other cohesive devices • The race is crowded, but San Francisco stands a fair chance of becoming the first major American city without a daily newspaper. The San Francisco Chronicle, founded in 1865, is trimming its already pared-down staff in an attempt to avoid closure. And if it does disappear? – Collocation – Cataphor – Marked structure – Typical of news language (Mainguenau: 2007): suspense creation

Other cohesion devices (reference) • Most industries are suffering at present, but few are doing as badly as the news business. Things are worst in America, where many papers used to enjoy comfortable local monopolies, but in Britain around 70 local papers have shut down since the beginning of 2008. Among the survivors, advertising is dwindling, editorial is thinning and journalists are being laid off. The crisis is most advanced in the Anglo-Saxon countries, but it is happening all over the rich world: the impact of the internet, exacerbated by the advertising slump, is killing the daily newspaper. Anaphoric encapsulation is a cohesive device by which a noun phrase functions as a resumptive paraphrase for a preceding portion of a text.

Other cohesive devices • Most industries are suffering at present, but few are doing as badly as the news business. – Ellipsis

Other cohesive devices • But the only certainty about the future of news is that it will be different from the past. It will no longer be dominated by a few big titles whose front pages determine the story of the day. Public opinion will, rather, be shaped by thousands of different voices, with as many different focuses and points of view. As a result, people will have less in common to chat about around the water-cooler. Those who are not interested in political or economic news will be less likely to come across it; but those who are will be better equipped to hold their rulers to account. Which is, after all, what society needs news for. Comparative reference

Other cohesive devices • Among the survivors, advertising is dwindling, editorial is thinning and journalists are being laid off. • A newspaper is a package of content-politics, sport, share prices, weather and so forth-which exists to attract eyeballs to advertisements. Unfortunately for newspapers, the internet is better at delivering some of that than paper is. It is easier to search through job and property listings on the web, so classified advertising and its associated revenue is migrating onto the internet. Some content, too, works better on the internet-news and share prices can be more frequently updated, weather can be more geographically specific - so readers are migrating too. The package is thus being picked apart. • Parallelism at clause level • Parallelism at sentence level

Thematic structure • Sentence 1 • Theme: The race • Rheme: is crowded, but San Francisco stands a fair chance of becoming the first major American city without a DAILY NEWSPAPER (= NEW information) • Sentence 2 • Theme: The San Francisco Chronicle (= GIVEN information) • Rheme: is trimming its already pared-down staff in an attempt to avoid closure.